Best bullet for a Smith or Gallagher

[noonanda]

So I just picked up a smith carbine, and also just won an auction for a Erma works Gallagher. what would be a good mold that could be used with both rifles? Also do they share tubes, as Im not seeing gallagher tubes on Lodgewoods site

[mgmradio]

The best bullet for the Smith is the Eras Gone By mould if it's an original.
The Erma Gallagher if it the original micro grove barrel the bore is close to .540 so you will have to find a bullet that will work. If it's been relined then the Smith bullet would work. The Gallagher cartridge is different from the Smith. I believe S&S has them.

[noonanda]

The best bullet for the Smith is the Eras Gone By mould if it's an original.
The Erma Gallagher if it the original micro grove barrel the bore is close to .540 so you will have to find a bullet that will work. If it's been relined then the Smith bullet would work. The Gallagher cartridge is different from the Smith. I believe S&S has them.

Thanks. Im gonna shoot the Gallagher first, but will likely try to get it relined in the future. Bullet compatibility between the two would be nice

[Lou Lou Lou]

I?m partial to the 515-385 or 515-365 from Moose for the Smith

[bobanderson]

I bought the 6 gang Lee mould from Lodgewood. It comes in 2 sizes, .515 for hard lead shooters and .518 for pure lead. I have the .515 and using hard lead I was able to whip up a LOT of bullets at about .517 diameter. The profile, length and weight combined in my Hoyt lined barrel to produce great groups and good hit times.

Probably another gun I shouldn't have sold (sigh)

[gemmer]

I bought the 6 gang Lee mould from Lodgewood. It comes in 2 sizes, .515 for hard lead shooters and .518 for pure lead. I have the .515 and using hard lead I was able to whip up a LOT of bullets at about .517 diameter. The profile, length and weight combined in my Hoyt lined barrel to produce great groups and good hit times.

Probably another gun I shouldn't have sold (sigh)

If you have the Erma relined, go with a .515 groove for the Smith bullet and have it chambered for the Gallagher case. That's the advice I got from Bobby Hoyt when I brought mine to him, and he was right. I have the Lee 2 cavity Smith .518 mould and size to .517.

[mgmradio]

A friend of mine shoots an Erma Galager with the original microgroved barrel. He uses a bullet that looks like a maxi ball that's .540 . He is an excellent shot and it shoots one raged hole at 50 yards off hand. He gave me a few that I will try in my original Gallagher this weekend. I've been using a 56-50 Spencer bullet for testing so far and have found it to be very accurate, though it is a little long.

[noonanda]

A friend of mine shoots an Erma Galager with the original microgroved barrel. He uses a bullet that looks like a maxi ball that's .540 . He is an excellent shot and it shoots one raged hole at 50 yards off hand. He gave me a few that I will try in my original Gallagher this weekend. I've been using a 56-50 Spencer bullet for testing so far and have found it to be very accurate, though it is a little long.

how does it do at 100 yards? From all the old posts I have read, they do great at 50yds but not so much at 100yds due to the fast rifling.

[george7542]

I have been shooting an noe smith bullet 517 four cavity mold out of a relined pietta a relined original and a yeck with its original rifling all three Smith's will the bullet properly sized and correct powder charge will shoot one ragged hole at 50 and 100 yards.

[WBR10654]

well that is the first time I have hear that about the .515s for shooting hard lead... I had a Hoyt relined Maynard and it has a small Chamber and a TUBE with a .518 in it would not fit, so I shot a .515.

I had two of the Lee gang molds and they just did not seem to hold up. I have Brass three four gang from Mike Owsiak that has been outstanding...

I also know people who like the Moose Molds.

I still buy a Lee mold every once in a while but just to figure out which bullet to shoot in a firearm and then buy a Steel one. I just do not think the Aluminum Holds up for the number of rounds I shoot.

DPB



I bought the 6 gang Lee mould from Lodgewood. It comes in 2 sizes, .515 for hard lead shooters and .518 for pure lead. I have the .515 and using hard lead I was able to whip up a LOT of bullets at about .517 diameter. The profile, length and weight combined in my Hoyt lined barrel to produce great groups and good hit times.

Probably another gun I shouldn't have sold (sigh)

[bobanderson]

well that is the first time I have hear that about the .515s for shooting hard lead...

DPB

We shot hard lead cast bullets for years in centerfire revolvers, .357 and .44 magnum. The faster you push pure lead, the more leading you get. This is well known by Black Powder Cartridge Silhouette shooters who push big 500+ grain bullets to higher velocities to get hits on 500 meter rams, so harder alloys resist that. The harder you cast, the larger the bullets will come out of the mould. Usually you can get .002 to .003 thousandths depending on how exotic your alloy is. I used to harden with linotype, mixed about 10 parts pure to one part lino. Linotype ingots were pretty scarce for me so I needed a better alloy.
Talking with Mr. Veral Smith of LBT one day, he told me that there were only 3 makers of wheel weights in the country and one of those was exclusive to Sears, so wheel weights were very consistent metal. He said the secret to get good hard alloys from wheel weights was to smelt them down in about 100 lb lots, flux them, scoop off the dross and pour them into ingots for use when you are casting. I mix 3 parts pure lead with one part wheel weights and have gotten very consistent hard lead bullets for years. With only 2 types of lead in the shop, it's easy to keep track of what you're melting.
I'm relatively new to skirmishing, only 12 years or so, but I've seen that many skirmishers use only pure lead in all their firearms. My rule is to use pure lead for anything that loads from the front and hard lead for any breachloaders. The slightly larger projectiles also engrave the rifling better making for better accuracy.

[singleshot]

I agree anything U load from the front use pure lead and from the back U can use harder lead.